Chris Grey

This is a very sharp analysis about what volatility in British politics implies.

In fact, the extract from the Home Secretary's comments suggests that her rationale is wholly dishonest - the settlement changes concern people who are here legally, not illegally

Discrediting the peaceful transfers of representation and power, is to subvert the fundamentals of a democratic polity.

Dear Matt Goodwin, why are you such a bad loser? The Reform candidate in Gorton and Denton tried to blame "woke" ideology and "Islamism" for his by-election defeat. Might it be that actually, he and his politics are just not very appealing? ZOE GRÜNEWALD

Perhaps the deeper problem is that Goodwin and his allies simply do not understand this country. That may not be surprising. They claim to speak for ordinary people while observing them from a distance, through the distorting lens of X, a social media ecosystem that rewards outrage and strips away civility and accountability. They tour Hungary and the US in search of ideological inspiration, nod approvingly at Viktor Orbán's pronatalist experiments and Trump's ICE deployment, and circulate among the uber-wealthy and uber-aggrieved. Their "outsider" insurgency looks, on inspection, rather establishment: privately educated, well-connected, and perpetually resentful. The irony is hard to miss. A party styling itself as the revolt of the "silent majority" was beaten by a candidate speaking plainly about work, public services and the cost of living. For all his accumulated titles and platforms, Goodwin scraped second - and responded not with reflection, but with sour grapes. Blaming "Islamists" is easier on a man's ego, I suppose, than taking a long, searching look in the mirror.

“Gorton and Denton…. was a stress test for grievance politics, and grievance cracked first. Reform’s instinct when challenged is not to persuade but to tantrum; not to build trust but to erode it. That’s the playbook. Win, or cry foul”
@zoegrunewald.bsky.social
www.thenewworld.co.uk/zoe-grunewal...

Surely an injustice! No doubt this statement means Goodwin is "deeply concerned" that some voters, egged on by Danny Kruger's ideas of 'traditional family values', may have coerced their relatives into voting for the "sectarianism" of Reform.

Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts Care roles hit particularly hard by UK’s lurch to the right on migration, according to analysis of Home Office data

"Ministers need to wake up."

Indeed. Some shift away from the exceptional levels of overseas recruitment 21-24 was natural/desirable.

But current "strategy" - no new visas and making life as unpleasant as possible for migrants already here - is madness.

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

A consistent recurring theme of Farage byelection losses over a decade - Oldham 2015 with Ukip, Peterborough 2019 with Brexit Party, Gorton & Denton 2026 - is to talk loudly about electoral challenges about minority voters. But never to actually put the case to authorities. Media should spot pattern

Further disappointment awaits Goodwin when his pitch to be the next Poet Laureate is rejected

Reform, which spent its by-election campaign warning about the UK's "Christian heritage" being under threat, while proposing a ban on visas from predominantly Muslim countries, now accuses their opponents of engaging in "sectarian politics"

Quite shocking. What does "Muslim community bloc vote" mean?

I’m seeing takes talking about ‘the centre ground is gone’ etc, and I don’t think that’s accurate - voters haven’t changed their motivations, the major parties have just failed to cater to them. Those people who voted green would’ve voted Labour had Labour not been too busy flirting with the right.

This is the inevitable result when Labour tries to outgun the repulsive hard-right on immigration, failing to learn a central lesson of the Tory implosion

Gorton and Denton by-election result: GRN: 40.7% (+27.5) REF: 28.7% (+14.7) LAB: 25.4% (-25.3) CON: 1.9% (-6.0) LDEM: 1.8% (-2.1) Green GAIN from Labour.

Expect weeks of "family voting" rhetoric from Reform. They're out of the gates on it already.

It mustn't be allowed to wash because look at the scale of that win.

Tactical voting has obviously played a massive part.

Gorton and Denton rejected Reform and its hateful agenda.

Has there ever been a more graceless and divisive concession?

Showing exactly why voters in Gorton and Denton rejected him tonight

Orr, Farage, Lowe and the battle for Britain’s right Reform’s ideological glow-up collides with Rupert Lowe’s insurgency – and first-past-the-post will inevitably punish them both

What happens when movements built on grievance begin competing with each other? The Bear dissects the fault lines opening on the right.

@eastangliabylines.co.uk @bearlypolitics.co.uk

At less than £1 per year of hemispheric destruction, who could fail to be?

Fair point. BTW I would actually say that the article applies to many kinds of voters, not just those voting for populists

Five-sixths of people don't know that immigration fell from peak levels. There is much more coverage of asylum.

The BBC coverage does include these figures - very briefly - but the framing/summary is dominated by the asylum numbers.

The £500k “Boat Migrant Payout” Story Isn’t What You Think How unlawful phone seizures, selective reporting and misleading headlines turned a government failure into a culture-war outrage.

Another splendid 'debunk' from @monkemma.bsky.social. It's hard to overestimate just how much work it takes to excavate, accurately and in detail, the layers of half-truth, falsity, misinterpretation etc. of these kinds of stories: monkdebunks.substack.com/p/the-500k-b...

It’s taboo to admit it, but voters bear some responsibility for the frayed state of Britain | Andy Beckett Populists blame an ever-expanding list of enemies for social ills – many of which are in fact caused by changes in our habits and social norms, says Guardian columnist Andy Beckett

Good piece. This isn't sufficiently acknowledged.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It's on my radar. There also seems from the report to be a version of the old 'German car makers will be on the phone to Merkel' thing in the idea that French firms will be lobbying for the UK to be included.

Tommy Robinson visited the US State Department today at the invite of the Trump administration.

He's Britain's most prominent far-right street thug with criminal convictions for assault, violence, fraud, stalking & harassment.

He was jailed in 2012 for trying to enter the US with a false passport.

Reform UK's Matt Goodwin Advised the Wealthiest 1% While Claiming to Stand Against ‘The Elite' Goodwin's definition of “the elite” includes university professors and civil servants while seemingly excluding the investment bankers, asset managers and global real estate executives who pay him

How Matt Goodwin's definition of "the Elite" focuses on university workers and civil servants, while excluding the investment bankers, asset managers and global real estate executives who pay him

bylinetimes.com/2026/02/25/r...

Interesting piece by @rolandmcs.bsky.social on the nostalgia which has become such a significant feature of current politics

Restore Britain will, without apology or fear, deport the third world orcs who break into our country, rape young women and then expect the British to tolerate their presence. There is finally a political party that will defend our home, our people, our shires. Restore Britain.

The UK parliament now has an MP who is openly racist and far right. This is, for the current era, new ground, and it will be interesting to see how - if at all – other MPs respond.

Putin's war weapons hiding in plain sight - in the English Channel As tankers carrying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Russian oil pass through British waters, a Sky News expert warns we are heading for "militarised confrontation at sea".

“On a misty February morning midway between Britain & France, we watch tankers carrying Russian oil worth around $100m (£74.1m) cruise past in defiance of Western sanctions, embargoes, & price caps.”

Even tho’ sanctioned they pass thro’ the waters of sanctioning states

news.sky.com/story/flatpl...

Ukrainians gathered in front of the Natiinal Gallery, London, marking the 4th anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Trafalgar Square, 24.2 26.

With these sorts of numbers, anything could happen...

Extract from the Press Regulations Authority 10th Annual report: Emma Monk, who fights misinformation through her popular 'debunking' Substack and social media profiles, tells us that as news consumption has shifted online and onto social feeds, "the headline is all that you will see, with the article often behind a paywall", ', and that even where full articles are available "many people will not click away from their feed to read the details". She documents techniques used by the press to create misleading impressions without making technically false claims, including omission of vital context and headlines that imply causation where none exists.

It was an honour to be asked to contribute to the Press Regulation Panel’s 10th Annual report into the state of press accountability in the UK a decade after the Leveson enquiry which was published today

www.pressrecognitionpanel.org.uk/10th-annual-...

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Good to see you great work being used in this way